PixlBit

As we transition away from last gen, developers are finally able to stretch outside of the sardine cans they've been stuck in for the past 8 years. With machines more powerful and easier to work with, next-gen visuals are already a big step up over the graphics of the past. The visuals of games like Ryse and Killzone SFhave been a breath of fresh air for me, as I was so disgusted with the sub-30fps, sub-720p nonsense last go-round that I moved towards PC gaming.

However, it's hard to appreciate that when so much game footage is hosted on sites like Youtube and IGN. The videos there, highly compressed to put download speed over visual quality, are grossly inadequate. It isn't possible to get an proper sense of how these games look when you're actually playing them.

It makes sense for devs to put their footage on these sites. It cuts down on costs by offloading hosting responsibilities to Youtube, and grants them access to millions of viewers in one place. But it does a disservice to the games by not presenting them under the best conditions--ironic, considering how the industry micromanages product rollouts for maximum buzz and hype.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me--I tend to be sensitive to such things. But when I look at proper footage on sites like Gamersyde, or watch the less compromised trailer of the Witcher 3 from CDPR's site, it makes me resent how many companies put their stuff on the big streaming sites and leave it at that. I want a better sense of how these games will look once I have them,  and I'm not going to get that on Youtube.